ENO 2010 - 2011 season announced

English National Opera formally announced their 2010-11 season today (although as you may be aware the first half is already viewable on their website and available for public booking from 10 May). (UPDATE - ENO have notified me that the second half will appear on the website in October 2010).

The big news is that Terry Gilliam will be directing The Damnation of Faust next May. Whether he'll actually turn up is moot - he pulled out of La Scala's Andrea Chenier late in the game due to an overrun on a movie project. 

Other bravely-selected directorial debutants include Mike Figgis, Rufus Norris and Simon Burney. By the law of averages at least one of those should produce something worth seeing - but which one's the Minghella and which one's the Rupert Goold?

10 of the 14 productions are new. Co-productions feature heavily but the good news (for critics; I'm not sure the public give a flying one) is that in most cases London gets them first.

Welcome revivals include Christopher Alden's excellent The Makropoulos Case and Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Parsifal, superbly cast.

With only three productions under his baton next season, Ed Gardner is spreading himself less thinly than he has in the past. This can only be good news - he's a talented conductor, but some of his previous work has I think suffered from insufficient preparation. Amongst the guests, Kirill Karabits with Don Giovanni looks the most interesting. 

ENO can't afford global megastars, but some excellent singers are lined up, including Toby Spence, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Iain Paterson (several times) and Sir John Tomlinson. And in an otherwise sadly double entendre-light season, A Midsummer Night’s Dream will offer the irresistible opportunity to view Sir Willard White's Bottom.

The full list:

Faust (opens 18 September) NEW
Director – Des McAnuff   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Toby Spence, Melody Moore, Iain Paterson, Benedict Nelson

The Makropoulos Case (opens 20 September)
Director – Christopher Alden   Conductor – Richard Armstrong
Cast includes Amanda Roocroft, Andrew Shore

Radamisto (opens 7 October) NEW
Director – David Alden   Conductor – Laurence Cummings
Cast includes Lawrence Zazzo, Christine Rice, Sophie Bevan, Ailish Tynan

La bohème (opens 18 October)
Director – Jonathan Miller   Conductor – Stephen Lord
Cast includes Gwyn Hughes Jones, Alfie Boe

Don Giovanni (opens 6 November) NEW
Director – Rufus Norris   Conductor – Kirill Karabits
Cast includes Iain Paterson, Katherine Broderick, Rebecca Evans, Brindley Sherratt, Robert Murray, Sarah Tynan

A Dog’s Heart by Raskatov (opens 20 November) NEW, UK premiere
Director – Simon McBurney for Complicite   Conductor – Garry Walker
Cast TBC

Lucrezia Borgia (opens 31 January) NEW
Director – Mike Figgis   Conductor – Paul Daniel
Cast includes Claire Rutter, Michael Fabiano

Parsifal (opens 16 February)
Director – Nikolaus Lehnhoff   Conductor – Mark Wigglesworth
Cast includes Iain Paterson, John Tomlinson, Tom Fox, Stuart Skelton, Irene Theorin

The Mikado (opens 26 February)
Director – Jonathan Miller   Conductor – Peter Robinson
Cast includes Alfie Boe, Sophie Bevan, Richard Suart, Donald Maxwell

The Return of Ulysses (opens 24 March at Young Vic) NEW
Director - Benedict Andrews   Conductor – Jonathan Cohen
Cast includes Tom Randle, Pamela Helen Stephen

The Damnation of Faust (opens 6 May) NEW
Director – Terry Gilliam   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Christine Rice, Christopher Purves

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (opens 19 May) NEW
Director – Christopher Alden   Conductor – Leo Hussain
Cast includes Iestyn Davies, Willard White, Sarah Tynan, Allan Clayton, Benedict Nelson, Kate Valentine

Simon Boccanegra (opens 8 June) NEW
Director – Dmitri Tcherniakov   Conductor – Edward Gardner
Cast includes Bruno Caproni, Brindley Sherratt, Roland Wood

Nico Muhly new commission (opens 24 June) NEW World premiere
Director – Bartlett Sher   Conductor – TBC
Cast TBC

Comments

[John]

What a relief - a revival of The Mikado.

[Opera Cake]

Thanks!

Isn't that program much-MUCH better than the tepid ROH soup?

NP of Boccanegra by Tcherniakov should be great, and I can bet A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Hussain + Clayton & White, will be a major highlight of the 2010-2011 season.

[inter mezzo]

@ John - indeed, but do I sense you're as disappointed as I am that once again ENO have failed to commission Calixto Bieito's Ruddigore?

[John]

IM: what a blood fest but it really wouldn't matter, matter......

[Owen Bywater]

Out of curiosity, who are the co-productions with? I know the Muhly + Faust are with the Met. The ENO website says of Faust: "updating the story's classic setting to a more contemporary world at war". There'll be letters!

[inter mezzo]

Faust - Met
Radamisto - Santa Fe
A Dog's Heart - Netherlands Opera
The Return of Ulysses - Young Vic
The Damnation of Faust - Antwerp
Simon Boccanegra - Munich
Nico Muhly - Met

I can't imagine the Faust will be that controversial if the Met are paying half.

[Ruth]

@Owen Bywater - there'll be MUCH more "letters" at the Met...

[Keith]

Much better than the Royal Opera's prison-soup broth of a season - and they've certainly got the cheque book out on the casting front for Parsifal. Theorin as Kundry, and at ENO - who'd have thought it?

[Owen Bywater]

Thanks for the co-production info. Do you know if detailed perf dates are available anywhere? In principle it's a very exciting season, but these 'celebrity' directorial gigs are so risky. I still shudder at the memory of Sally Potter's Carmen... and apart from Giovanni they're all quite niche pieces; this from a company with no revivable Carmen, Traviata, Figaro and depending on 80s versions of Flute, Barber, Mikado...

[Owen Bywater]

And their attitude to your Fidelio info really irritated me - if the info is incorrect then get Munich to take it off their website "with immediate effect". We could probably block most of the production already, which would almost certainly involve Jacquino raping Marcelline!

[inter mezzo]

@Owen the performance dates for the first half of the season are on the website booking page. I assume the second half dates won't be revealed until they appear on the website in October (you won't be able to book until then either).

[Blue Byrd]

I realise I'm late to the discussion - bit behind on my blogs, sorry - but the idea of a Gilliam Damnation actually made me go "Holy crap" to myself just now. Out loud. A coproduction with Antwerpen - that'll be De Vlaamse Opera, then?

I'll be checking out that production of A Dog's Heart in Amsterdam this June. Several times over, possibly. Gotta love those student standby schemes.